There are a number of educational toys that attempt to engage a child's interest and to teach the child any of a variety of concepts by virtue of the child's play with the toy. These toys, however, are geared to single format learning. Typically, toys implement a particular instructional modality and use it exclusively.
For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,376,038, issued to Avi Arad, a doll is disclosed that has electronic switches located in the hands, feet, nose, lips, and other body parts of the doll. When a child presses the switch, for example, in the hand, the doll says the word “hand”. An adult can adjust a programming switch that changes the complexity of speech so that the doll appears to say the words “hold my hand” instead of saying the word “hand”. Arad's doll, however, not only requires the intervention of an adult for full operation, it only says a word or phrase in response to activation of a switch in a particular body part. Arad's doll provides the user with only a single instruction modality wherein a name is provided for a body part.
A toy that is available on the market, entitled “What Am I?”, a Golden Book™ product (Western Publishing Co. Inc.; 1220 Mound Ave.; Racine, Wis. 53404), presents a slightly different format. It presents the child with a 6×6 array of cartoon representations of unrelated objects. The objects might be, for example, a bus, a bird, a spoon, a cake, a roller skate, etc. The child is asked to guess what object is in the “mind” of the toy, with the voice synthesized question, “What am I?” Upon pressing an image, the child is told “I am bigger than that,” “I am smaller than that,” or “I am a different color,” etc. When playing with the toy, it often takes users, including adults, many tries to get a correct answer, causing frustration. Also, the child must have a very clear idea of what the object is before playing the game because the object representations are all the same size. For example, in the toy, a house, a spoon, a cat, and an apple are all represented with the same size picture. As with the other toys, the format is invariable. Only one instruction modality is presented. Additionally, there are a small number of phrases and tunes in the toy.
Embodiments of the invention address these and other problems, individually and collectively.